Gates McFadden

Actor

Born: 28 August 1949

Birthplace: Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio

Best known as:

Dr. Beverly Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation

Name at birth: Cheryl Gates McFadden

Gates McFadden played chief medical officer Beverly Crusher of the space ship Enterprise on TV's Star Trek: The Next Generation. McFadden's mix of cool professionalism and mature sex appeal earned her a devoted crowd of fans. (Many fans particularly loved the idea of her would-be romance with Captain Jean-Luc Picard, played by Patrick Stewart.) A 1970 graduate of Brandeis University, Gates McFadden came to show business by way of dance and theater. McFadden began working with muppets in the late 1970s, and she was a choreographer on the Jim Henson movies The Dark Crystal (1982) and Labyrinth (1986). Her role as Dr. Beverly Crusher lasted through the show's seven seasons on TV (1987-94), and she has since appeared in the Star Trek feature films Generations (1994), First Contact (1996), Insurrection (1998) and Nemesis (2002). She has appeared in a variety of other films and TV shows, including The Hunt for Red October in 1990 (she was Caroline Ryan, hero Jack Ryan's wife), Dirty (2005) and Make the Yuletide Gay (2009).